Visual Mode
The visual mode in video games is often regarded as one of the most important modes in the genre. The word video can be traced back to the Latin videre - to see. This mode is the most used of all modes in video games. Beside text based games of the Commodore and Atari systems, games rely on the incredibly versatile digital mode to act as the basis of the player's experience. The visual mode has many different components that all clump together to make the mode stand out from the others. Not only does the visual mode deal with the resolution of the image, but it also deals with the use of color in the work as well as the use of scenery to augment the game's world. Resolution The earliest video games had a resolution known as 8-bit. 8-bit data is an infinitesimally small increment of information by today's standards, but was in standard use during the earliest stages of video games. As video games have evolved, so have graphical limitations. The lower the picture quality, the older a game tends to be, for the most part. On occasion, game creators utilize a more simplistic graphical style as a stylistic choice or in order to make the game less costly to create. The stylistic choice of graphics can make a game take on a certain style. The resolution can affect the player as it has it a direct impact on how the story is portrayed and shown to the player. The use of low-resolution graphics utilize pathos as they evoke a response related to nostalgia. The low resolution graphics can remind the player of a simpler time in their life due to the basic graphics. The transition between lower quality to higher quality graphics can see a decrease in nostalgia and childlike wonder and an increase in beauty and realism. Breakthroughs in graphical limitations and improvements in game creation engines have led to the hyper realistic gaming world that exists today. Realism in modern modern video games can invoke pathos in the player, as they can identify more with the character if the character looks more like a realistic human being. Facial expression through modern technology in games can facilitate empathy in the player. It is important to understand that developers utilize graphical realism to illicit an emotional response from the player that was originally used by other modes. The Linguistic mode was commonly used in the early days of video games, as it was the best way to relay the story. As the visual mode developed, it worked in part with the other modes to develop Pathos in the work. For more on how the visual mode works with the other modes, see our Multi-modal page. Color Color plays an incredibly large role in the visual mode. Color has co-existed with games since the advent of the arcade cabinet and will continue to play a large role in the future. Color is known to be incredibly useful in evoking emotion in a person; white exuding purity and red exclaiming passion are common examples of this in video games and popular culture. As research on the effects of colors on rhetoric continues, one thing has made itself very clear. The use of color and pathos are intertwined. Studies on the nature of color and emotional response have concluded that the majority of emotional response to color comes from culture and from past experience. Each different culture has a long history of color association with different phenomena, historical events, and social hierarchy. Purple has come to be known as a color associated with wealth due to the scarcity of purple dye and to the Roman fascination with the color. Death is commonly linked to the color black in the West, but in China it is actually the color white that is known for being the color of death. This is an example of the cultural differences that can affect the emotion related to a color. This deviation by culture in relation to color and emotion means that each culture has its own system of color utilization in rhetoric.